thechocoluver445

3 years ago

Can anyone tell me how easy/hard Honors English is in freshman year?

Hi,
I am an English teacher, and I have taught non-honors, honors, and IB at this point. What I always noticed about students who are in honors and IB is that the ease or difficulty of the class is dependent on the student himself or herself. If you are a motivated student who likes to read and will be willing to look beyond the literal meaning of a text, then you will be fine. Putting in extra effort is always important (NOT SUCKING UP).
If your teacher ever offers you the chance to turn in your writing early to get help with a draft, take it! That means that he or she wants you to do well. Also, you could always ask your teacher if you can get some feedback before turning in the final draft. It's still not sucking up; it's ensuring yourself that you are doing everything possible to get the best possible grade.
As you read over the summer (which is really good to do if you're in honors), I would suggest starting to think critically about the text. Think of the questions that might come up from the text.
And last, a true honors student does not rely on SparkNotes or anything similar to it. They actually read the text.
If you do all of the above, then you'll be great! :)

Thanks! I'm going into high school, and they told us that we had to read To Kill a Mockingbird. I was just wondering whether I'd be able to breeze by this class or not. Thank you so much for the advice! I'll actually try :P

Great book! Look for the themes as you go through because you'll probably be asked that when you get back. Also, the concept of the mockingbird is really important. Try to figure out who is the mockingbird in the book.
This book is a classic, and though I don't agree with all of the books that "they" say are classics, I do agree about this one.
Some themes: racism, doing the right thing (even when it's hard), growing up

1. Try to get the syllabus for the course as early as possible
2. Go to Borders Books and look over the AP English books. If you can understand anything in that, then you're half-way there.
3. Become familiar with all of the American Literature Classics. You should be able to get access to most of them on amazon.
4. Spark Notes and Cliffnotes are your friend

You should try getting in contact with your teachers before the courses begin and obtaining the syllabus or finding out what books you need to be familiar with. That'll give you the head start you need.